An experienced politician was picked up by heavily armed police officers during a robbery in his home on the outskirts of Pristina.
Jakup Krasniqi, an experienced Kosovar politician and former spokesman for the Kosovar Liberation Army, has been arrested and transferred to The Hague, the Kosovo War Crimes Tribunal said in a statement.
Krasniqi, the former speaker of parliament, is charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity, the Kosovo Chamber of Commerce added. There were no details of the charges against him.
The arrest came after heavily armed police officers from the European Union Rule of Law Mission (EULEX) raided Krasniqi’s house on the outskirts of the capital Pristina in Kosovo.
The specialist chamber was set up in The Hague in 2015 to deal with cases of alleged crimes committed by guerrillas of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) during the war between 1998 and 1999 that eventually led to Kosovo’s independence from Serbia 10 years later.
The court located in The Hague is governed by Kosovar law, but is staffed with international judges and prosecutors.
At the end of June, Kosovo President Hashim Thaci was among nine people charged by the tribunal with war crimes and crimes against humanity. A month later he was questioned for the first time by prosecutors in The Hague about his role in the conflict of the 1990s.
The war, which ended after NATO-led air strikes, left more than 10,000 dead and 1,641 people left out.
Serbia does not recognize Kosovo’s declaration of independence in 2008. Serbia and Kosovo have been negotiating with the European Union since 2011 to normalize relations and open the door to EU membership.
Jakup Krasniqi, who met the then President of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy, here in 2010, is an experienced politician in Kosovo and one-time President of the Parliament [File: Armend Nimani/AFP]
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